Affective events theory

Affective events theory (AET) is a model developed by organizational psychologists Howard M. Weiss (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Russell Cropanzano (University of Colorado) to explain how emotions and moods influence job performance and job satisfaction.[1] The model explains the linkages between employees' internal influences (e.g., cognitions, emotions, mental states) and their reactions to incidents that occur in their work environment that affect their performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. The theory proposes that affective work behaviors are explained by employee mood and emotions, while cognitive-based behaviors are the best predictors of job satisfaction.[2] The theory proposes that positive-inducing (e.g., uplifts) as well as negative-inducing (e.g., hassles) emotional incidents at work are distinguishable and have a significant psychological impact upon workers' job satisfaction.[2][3] This results in lasting internal (e.g., cognition, emotions, mental states) and external affective reactions exhibited through job performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.[3]

Alternatively, some research suggests that job satisfaction mediates the relationship between various antecedent variables such as dispositions, workplace events, job characteristics, job opportunities, and employee behavior exhibited while on the job (e.g., organizational citizenship behaviors, counter-productive work behaviors, and job withdrawal).[4] To that end, when workers experience uplifts (e.g., completing a goal, receiving an award) or hassles (e.g., dealing with a difficult client, reacting to an updated deadline), their intention to continue or quit depends upon the emotions, moods, and thoughts associated with the satisfaction they derive from their jobs.[5]

Other research has demonstrated that the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover is fully mediated by intention to quit; workers who report low job satisfaction are likely to engage in planned quitting.[6][7] However, this relationship does not account for employees who report high job satisfaction, but quit unexpectedly. Although extrinsic rewards, such as better job offers outside their current organization, may influence their decisions, employees' personality factors may also impact their decisions to exit early from otherwise ideal jobs under ideal working conditions.[5][6][7]

Recipients often refer to specific events in exit interviews when voluntarily leaving their current jobs. Minor events with subtle emotional effects also have a cumulative impact on job satisfaction, particularly when they occur acutely with high frequency.[8][9] For example, perceived stressful events at work are often positively associated with high job strain on the day that they occur and negatively associated with strain the day after, resulting in an accumulation of perceived job-related stress over time.[9] This is consistent with the general understanding in vocational psychology that job satisfaction is a distal, long-term outcome that is mediated by perceived job stress.[8][9]

The degree of autonomy workers have in their jobs affects their productivity, satisfaction, and intention to quit.[2] Research shows that the ability to make decisions and influence what happens on the job has the greatest impact on job satisfaction, particularly among young male workers.[2][16] Job autonomy even trumps income's effect on job satisfaction.[2] Alternatively, work overload significantly reduces job satisfaction among middle-aged women and men but does not significantly impact job satisfaction among young male workers.[16] These differences between the age and gender of workers indicate differences in career phase, where young (male) workers are more likely to put up with or expect work overload, while middle-aged workers tend to be approaching their peak and may expect some concessions (e.g., based on track record, merit, or currency to the organization).[16][17]

Likewise, work flexibility affects job satisfaction.[18] In fact, the flexibility to decide when work is performed ranks number one among women and number two or three among men in determining the characteristics of a satisfying job.[18] Similar to job autonomy, job flexibility is more important than income when evaluating job satisfaction.[19] Flexibility to determine one's work schedule is an important contributor to job satisfaction across the spectrum of low- and high-income jobs.[18][20] Work flexibility empowers employees by reducing the incidence of work-family conflicts and engagement in planned quitting to improve overall quality of life.[18] Positive affect is a fringe benefit of work flexibility that pays rich dividends to both employees and their employers, empowering the former and improving the ability of the latter to retain workers.[15][17][18]

Past research has suggested that workplace affect was a state-oriented construct (like emotions and mood) that depended upon the work environment or situations encountered at work.[6] However, more recent research describes affect as a dispositional trait that is dependent upon the individual.[21][22] Although workplace events have a significant impact on employees, their mood largely determines the intensity of their reaction to events experienced at work.[23] This emotional response intensity tends to affect job performance and satisfaction.[23] Other employment variables, like effort, leaving, deviance, commitment, and citizenship, are also affected by positive and negative perceptions of events experienced at work.[10][11][24][25]

General cognitive ability (also known as 'g') and personality also influence job performance.[26] Emotion and cognition help to explain Organizational Citizenship Behaviours (OCB). For example, emotions about one’s job (i.e., job affect) are strongly associated with OCBs directed at individuals, while one’s thoughts or job cognitions are reportedly more strongly associated with OCBs directed at the organization.[27] The outcome of how satisfied an individual employee is with her/his job within the organization may depend upon how s/he perceives an incident experienced at work.[17] Job satisfaction also depends upon the emotions and thoughts associated with that perception, as well as the social support provided by co-workers and the organization as a whole.[17][28][29][30]

In general, conscientiousness concerns delayed gratification. As a personality trait, conscientiousness involves regulating impulsiveness by following methodically determined plans to achieve nonimmediate goals.[31][32] Of the five factors, conscientiousness is considered the best predictor of training and job performance and occupational attainment.[26][33][34] Conscientiousness is demonstrated through employee industriousness, self-initiative, self-discipline, orderliness, and time management.[32] It positively predicts intrinsic (i.e., job satisfaction) and extrinsic (i.e., compensation and benefit) career success.[35] Accomplishment of complex tasks is correlated with high conscientiousness and general cognitive ability.[citation needed] Intention to leave an organization is less influenced by extrinsic reward than perceived procedural fairness, which is highly important to conscientious workers[36]

Perceptions of the conscientiousness of others may also influence intention to provide assistance at work. Investigations examining the impact of the interaction between low performing members' g and conscientiousness on team-level prosocial behavior demonstrates that other team members are likely to exhibit high prosocial behavior when the poor performer is perceived to have low g and high conscientiousness or high g and high conscientiousness. Team members exhibit moderate levels of prosocial behavior when the poor performer exhibits low g and low conscientiousness. When the poor performer is perceived to have high g and low conscientiousness, other team members exhibit the least amount of prosocial behavior.[37]

Conscientiousness and emotional stability predict low employee turnover and high job performance, indicating that these personality traits are robust and should be assessed during personnel selection in subsequent validation and utility analysis.[34][38] Conscientiousness is considered to account for possible moral, ethical, and contractual obligations that may lead to employee turnover.[38] In this mental state, employees high in conscientiousness may decide to demonstrate high organizational commitment due to transactional fairness in accordance with the norms of reciprocity, as long as a perceived debt exists.[38][39] Highly religious and conscientious workers may believe that quitting goes against their work-oriented beliefs (e.g., the Protestant work ethic), with any volition to carry through with quitting, a sign of poor character.[38][40][41][42]

Individuals who are high in agreeableness exhibit prosocial behaviors, are cooperative, compassionate, and polite, and show sincere concern for the welfare and rights of others.[32] Research links agreeableness with empathy and theory of mind to explain the emotions, intentions, and mental states of others.[32] Agreeable workers are valued employees; their agreeableness is a key factor in maintaining their social relationships.[42] Their tendency to strive toward integration, inclusion, and solidarity with others supports group cohesion.[43] They tend to be helpful and concerned for the welfare of others.[44] Agreeable workers also tend to experience high job satisfaction compared to less agreeable workers.[45] Workers high in agreeableness tend to rate themselves as high in intrinsic motivation, particularly when work performed on behalf of others or an organization is considered.[46] Heterogeneity of personality is important in team productivity, particularly where agreeableness is involved; having complete agreeableness among all members of a team is negatively related to performance as it tends to lead to groupthink.[47]

The relationship between agreeableness and job satisfaction is most apparent in exchange-oriented or transactional work environments.[48] When workers who are low in agreeableness are satisfied with their work environment and those they are required to interact with, they are likely to engage in prosocial organizational citizenship behaviors. Low-agreeable workers are likely to disengage in such behaviors when they find the work environment less favourable. Highly agreeable workers, on the other hand, are likely to engage in prosocial organizational citizenship behaviors regardless of the work climate, environment, or disposition of others they are required to work with,[48][49] since they tend to focus more on the needs of others and the organization as opposed to keeping track of transactions. Further, deviant behavior is higher among workers low in agreeableness, particularly when organizational support is low.[50]

Agreeableness and Conscientiousness have been consistently linked to organizational citizenship behavior, although this relationship is weak.[citation needed] Recent research suggests that agreeableness acts as a moderator that affects workers' experienced states of citizenship behavior. These two personality traits are also negatively correlated with employee turnover.[38] Workers who self-report as low on agreeableness are likely to engage in unplanned quitting, leading to a condition known as the "Hobo Syndrome" (i.e., habitual job quitting).[38][51]

The underlying anxiety implied by neuroticism is linked to emotional instability, which is typically important in predicting employees' intentions to quit.[38] Low emotional stability is also linked with intention to quit for reasons other than job dissatisfaction or poor job performance.[38] Neuroticism is the best predictor among the Big Five personality traits of negative job satisfaction.[45] For example, neuroticism negatively predicts extrinsic (i.e., compensation and benefit) success.[35] This is why conscientiousness (a great predictor of positive job performance and job satisfaction) and neuroticism (the best predictor of negative job satisfaction) are regularly used in personnel selection and personnel psychology.[45] Neuroticism explains significant variation in mood and job satisfaction among workers.[54]

Openness to experience is exhibited through mental abstraction and flexibility in perception.[32] Non-linear thinking is enabled through the use of imagination, intellectual curiosity, and an appreciation for aesthetics, all of which are core facets of this personality factor.[55] Employees assessed as high in openness to experience generally score high on tests of general cognitive ability and demonstrate high abilities in information processing, working memory, abstract reasoning, and focused attention.[32]

Workers high in openness to experience are more likely to engage in unplanned quitting.[38] However, this finding may have little to do with affect derived from events experienced at work. Individuals who self-report as high in openness to experience may be impulsive, but their decisions to suddenly quit may be due to the value placed on job diversity, need for change, exploration of other interests, intolerance for routine and boredom, and an underlying sense of curiosity.[38][40] Openness to experience does not appear to predict or explain job satisfaction.[45]

Extraversion is considered to be responsible for individual sensitivity to reward.[32] It is extraversion's underlying facets of assertiveness, sociability, and talkativeness that are reported to be related to approach tendencies within individuals toward either intrinsic or extrinsic rewards.[56][57] Like most human activity, the currency of the world of work involves rewards. High sensitivity to reward seems to be synonymous with extraversion, making workers who exhibit high extraversion likely to be highly motivated and highly productive in independent and collaborative work. This is particularly heightened when work involves supervision of others, management of resources, or leadership.[58][59]

Extraverts tend to experience more positive affect, perceive themselves more positively, and recall more positive than negative work events compared to introverts.[38][60][61] Intention to quit among extraverts is less dependent upon procedural fairness within the organization, particularly when the opportunity for social rewards at work is perceived as high.[36]

Conscientiousness and extraversion are the best predictors of positive job satisfaction.[45]

Workers' mood influences their job performance and job satisfaction.[54]Hedonic tone explains most of the variation in how an event at work affects a worker's internal state (i.e., mood) and how this state is expressed to others.[62] Even though positive events are reported three to five times more often, negative events have approximately five times the impact on mood.[62] An inverse relationship exists between hedonic tone and work affect, with hedonic tone negatively related to work performance and positively related to work withdrawal.[62] Workers are likely to be selfless and more altruistic when positive events occur, such as compliments, open acknowledgement of a job well-done, and promotions (which, in turn, seem to improve job performance). Negative events at work, however, are likely to cause negative mood in employees, resulting in negative work behaviours such as work slowdowns, work withdrawal, and absenteeism.[17]

Mood may be moderated by organizational commitment which, in turn, may affect workers' decisions to stay or quit. For example, workers may suppress their true feelings and choose to dissociate their mood at work if they are high in continuance organizational commitment (i.e., committed due to social or economic costs of leaving).[2][17][63] The same may be true for workers who are high in affective organizational commitment, which is typically the case for workers who are highly affiliated with their organizations (e.g., workers who have a family history of working for the same organization or who believe deeply in the organization's values or cause).[17] Similarly, workers who are high in normative organizational commitment feel they have to put up with less-than-favourable work environmental conditions because of contractual obligations.[63]

Research demonstrates that employee mood is a strong predictor of job satisfaction.[64]Neuroticism and extraversion explain a lot of the variation in individual differences in job satisfaction, with variation in mood and job satisfaction accurately predicting an individual worker's level of neuroticism.[45][64][65] There is also some indication that individuals may be predisposed to perceive events that occur at work as either negative or positive.[61] The effect of positive events on job satisfaction is weaker among workers with high negative mood predisposition than those with low negative mood predisposition.[61]

This predisposition to either be optimistic or pessimistic about job satisfaction may frame the job even before positive or negative events occur at work.[citation needed] To rule out the possibility of hiring personnel who come to the job with a negative outlook, the personality of potential employees should be evaluated through the use of standardized self-report personality inventories (e.g., NEO-PI-R) during the hiring process.[45] Highly conscientious, agreeable, or extraverted personnel tend to be more satisfied with their jobs and, by extension, tend to stay longer in organizations.[34][65][66] Alternatively, organizations may develop their own structured interview questions with behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) that provide further convergent validity on critical predictors of job performance (e.g., neuroticism). Such inventories, interviews, and tests must be reliable and valid in order to demonstrate their utility and legal defensibility in support of the selection and hiring process.

The intensity of negative affect experienced at work often leads to work withdrawal, absenteeism, vandalism, and early exit.[17][67][68][69] Organizations continually seek to select, train, and retain employees through incentives, compensation, benefits, and advancement. Such mechanisms influence the organizational commitment demonstrated by employees.[33][66] Organizational commitment suggests that employees self-identify with their employers; the more individuals identify with their employing organizations, the more likely they are to support the organization and act in its best interest.[70] Of the three components of organizational commitment (i.e., affective, continuance, and normative), affective organizational commitment is correlated with experiencing more positive affect at work.[17] This organizational commitment style has a greater impact on affect than individual personality factors and traits.[70]

This finding supports organizational psychological findings indicating that employee identification with the organization is based upon their affective commitment.[71] In fact, there is a stronger correlation between positive emotions and affective commitment than between positive emotions and job satisfaction.[2] The decision to continue working for an organization, however, does not seem to be dependent upon negative affect. Other factors, such as debt, pension implications, and future job prospects outside of the organization, must also be considered. Negative affect experienced through events at work may be related to changes in work performance, such as work withdrawal and absenteeism, as well as job satisfaction, but it does not seem to be the deciding factor on whether or not an employee will leave the organization.[17]

Psychosomatic complaint and health concerns due to emotions experienced at work[edit]

Research suggests that poor physical, mental, and emotional health can result from negative emotions experienced at work.[2] This may be due to perfectionist dispositional tendencies that interact with daily hassels manifested through psychosomatic complaints.[72] Workers who experience frequent thoughts of needing to be perfect tend to report more psychosomatic complaint.[72] Psychosomatic complaint may also occur as a response to emotional dissonance caused by the need to suppress one's true feelings toward co-workers and more so toward patients, students, customers, or clients.[73] Emotional labour or emotion work is required to achieve the effect required by the organization.[73] As a consequence, workers may 'act' as opposed to 'feel' positive or negative emotions at work to remain compliant with an organizational code of conduct. However, adherence to such organizational norms may belie the true internal state of the individual worker. Authenticity and emotional harmony in such situations, may yield to dissonance and negatively impact on workers' health.

The resulting emotional dissonance may lead to increased stress symptoms and a general decrease in overall health.[74][75]

Job satisfaction is negatively correlated with the need to suppress negative emotions on the job.[76][77]

Emotions play an important role in how co-workers respond to poor performers.[37] Emotions have a stronger influence than either expectancies or attributions in predicting behavioral intentions toward poor performing team members at work. In turn, this could spread to affect the emotions of other team members toward poor performance through contagion.[37] Emotional outcomes have been shown to be depend upon whether workers are promotion- or protection-focused at work.[78] Promotion-focused workers tend to exhibit eager risk-taking toward opportunities to demonstrate competence in order to accumulate gains, whereas protection-focused workers are inclined to show emotions that are more vigilant toward defending against erosion of their perceived credibility.[78] Feeling good about one's job is not as strongly associated with overall job satisfaction as the need to work as a function of one's continuance commitment.[2]

Performance feedback has an important influence on employee affect. Regular performance reviews are a well-established occurrence in most medium- to large-scale organizations.[79] The type of performance feedback provided by supervisors and managers can affect subsequent employee performance and job satisfaction.[24] Employees tend to rate a leader's effectiveness as low when leaders provide failure feedback with negative affect in feedback sessions.[80] Similarly, team members tend to provide lower quality performance ratings on their collective tasks when negative affect accompanies failure feedback by leaders.[80]

^ abcRolland, J.P. & De Fruyt, F. (2003). "The validity of FFM personality dimensions and maladaptive traits to predict negative affects at work: A six month prospective study in a military sample". European Journal of Personality. 17: S101–S121. doi:10.1002/per.485.

1.
Georgia Institute of Technology
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The Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. It is a part of the University System of Georgia and has campuses in Savannah, Georgia, Metz, France, Athlone, Ireland, Shenzhen, China. The educational institution was founded in 1885 as the Georgia School of Technology as part of Reconstruction plans to build an economy in the post-Civil War Southern United States. Initially, it offered only a degree in mechanical engineering, by 1901, its curriculum had expanded to include electrical, civil, and chemical engineering. In 1948, the changed its name to reflect its evolution from a trade school to a larger and more capable technical institute. Today, Georgia Tech is organized into six colleges and contains about 31 departments/units, with emphasis on science and it is well recognized for its degree programs in engineering, computing, business administration, the sciences, design, and liberal arts. Student athletics, both organized and intramural, are a part of student and alumni life, Georgia Tech fields eight mens and seven womens teams that compete in the NCAA Division I athletics and the Football Bowl Subdivision. Georgia Tech is a member of the Coastal Division in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the idea of a technology school in Georgia was introduced in 1865 during the Reconstruction period. However, because the American South of that era was mainly populated by workers and few technical developments were occurring. In 1882, the Georgia State Legislature authorized a committee, led by Harris and they were impressed by the polytechnic educational models developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science. On October 13,1885, Georgia Governor Henry D. McDaniel signed the bill to create, in 1887, Atlanta pioneer Richard Peters donated to the state 4 acres of the site of a failed garden suburb called Peters Park. The site was bounded on the south by North Avenue, and he then sold five adjoining acres of land to the state for US$10,000. This land was near Atlantas northern city limits at the time of its founding, the surrender of the city took place on the southwestern boundary of the modern Georgia Tech campus in 1864. The Georgia School of Technology opened in the fall of 1888 with two buildings, One building had classrooms to teach students, The second building featured a shop and had a foundry, forge, boiler room, and engine room. It was designed for students to work and produce goods to sell, on October 20,1905, U. S. President Theodore Roosevelt visited Georgia Tech. On the steps of Tech Tower, Roosevelt delivered a speech about the importance of technological education and he then shook hands with every student. Georgia Techs Evening School of Commerce began holding classes in 1912, the evening school admitted its first female student in 1917, although the state legislature did not officially authorize attendance by women until 1920. Annie T. Wise became the first female graduate in 1919 and was Georgia Techs first female faculty member the following year

2.
Reward system
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The reward system is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience, associative learning, and positive emotions, particularly ones which involve pleasure as a core component. Reward is the attractive and motivational property of a stimulus that induces appetitive behavior – also known as approach behavior –, in operant conditioning, rewarding stimuli function as positive reinforcers, however, the converse statement also holds true, positive reinforcers are rewarding. Primary rewards are those necessary for the survival of self and offspring. Intrinsic rewards are unconditioned rewards that are attractive and motivate behavior because they are inherently pleasurable, extrinsic rewards are conditioned rewards that are attractive and motivate behavior, but are not inherently pleasurable. Extrinsic rewards derive their value as a result of a learned association with intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards may also elicit pleasure after being classically conditioned with intrinsic rewards, survival for most animal species depends upon maximizing contact with beneficial stimuli and minimizing contact with harmful stimuli. Reward cognition serves to increase the likelihood of survival and reproduction by causing associative learning, eliciting approach and consummatory behavior, thus, reward is a mechanism that evolved to help increase the adaptive fitness of animals. Terms that are used to describe behavior related to the liking or pleasure component of reward include consummatory behavior. The three primary functions of rewards are their capacity to, produce associative learning, affect decision-making and induce approach behavior, elicit positive emotions, the dorsal raphe nucleus and cerebellum appear to modulate some forms of reward-related cognition and behaviors as well. The GABAergic medium spiny neurons of the striatum are components of the system as well. The glutamatergic projection nuclei in the nucleus, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, thalamus. The medial forebrain bundle, which is a set of neural pathways that mediate brain stimulation reward, is also a component of the reward system. After nearly 50 years of research on brain-stimulation reward, experts have certified that dozens of sites in the brain will maintain intracranial self-stimulation, regions include the lateral hypothalamus and medial forebrain bundles are especially effective. There are several explanations as to why the mesolimbic pathway is central to circuits mediating reward. First, there is a increase in dopamine release from the mesolimbic pathway when animals engage in intracranial self-stimulation. However, dopamine is not the only compound in the brain. Pleasure is a component of reward, but not all rewards are pleasurable, extrinsic rewards are rewarding as a result of a learned association with an intrinsic reward. In other words, extrinsic rewards function as motivational magnets that elicit wanting, the reward system contains pleasure centers or hedonic hotspots – i. e. brain structures that mediate pleasure or liking reactions from intrinsic rewards

3.
Natural justice
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In English law, natural justice is technical terminology for the rule against bias and the right to a fair hearing. While the term natural justice is often retained as a general concept, the basis for the rule against bias is the need to maintain public confidence in the legal system. Bias can take the form of bias, imputed bias or apparent bias. Cases from different jurisdictions currently apply two tests for apparent bias, the suspicion of bias test and the real likelihood of bias test. One view that has taken is that the differences between these two tests are largely semantic and that they operate similarly. The mere fact that a decision affects rights or interests is sufficient to subject the decision to the procedures required by natural justice. In Europe, the right to a hearing is guaranteed by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Natural justice is a term of art that denotes specific procedural rights in the English legal system and it is similar to the American concepts of fair procedure and procedural due process, the latter having roots that to some degree parallel the origins of natural justice. Natural justice is identified with the two constituents of a hearing, which are the rule against bias, and the right to a fair hearing. The requirements of justice or a duty to act fairly depend on the context. In Baker v. Earlier, in Knight v. Indian Head School Division No, furthermore, preliminary decisions will generally not trigger the duty to act fairly, but decisions of a more final nature may have such an effect. In addition, whether a duty to act fairly applies depends on the relationship between the authority and the individual. No duty exists where the relationship is one of master and servant, on the other hand, a duty to act fairly exists where the individual cannot be removed from office except for cause. Finally, a right to procedural fairness only exists when a decision is significant and has an important impact on the individual. A person is barred from deciding any case in which he or she may be, or may fairly be suspected to be, biased. This principle embodies the concept of impartiality, and applies to courts of law, tribunals, arbitrators. The basis on which impartiality operates is the need to maintain confidence in the legal system. The erosion of public confidence undermines the nobility of the legal system, Bias may be actual, imputed or apparent

4.
Punishment
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Punishment may be self-inflicted as with self-flagellation and mortification of the flesh in the religious setting, but is most often a form of social coercion. The unpleasant imposition may include a fine, penalty, or confinement, the individual may be a person, or even an animal. The authority may be either a group or a single person, negative consequences that are not authorized or that are administered without a breach of rules are not considered to be punishment as defined here. Research into punishment often includes similar research into prevention, justifications for punishment include retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. The last could include such measures as isolation, in order to prevent the wrongdoers having contact with potential victims, if only some of the conditions included in the definition of punishment are present, descriptions other than punishment may be considered more accurate. Inflicting something negative, or unpleasant, on a person or animal, in addition, the word punishment is used as a metaphor, as when a boxer experiences punishment during a fight. In other situations, breaking a rule may be rewarded, finally the condition of breaking the rules must be satisfied for consequences to be considered punishment. Corporal punishment refers to punishments in which pain is intended to be inflicted upon the transgressor. Punishments may be judged as fair or unfair in terms of their degree of reciprocity and proportionality to the offense, Punishment can be an integral part of socialization, and punishing unwanted behaviour is often part of a system of pedagogy or behavioral modification which also includes rewards. Various philosophers have presented definitions of punishment, introduced by B. F. Skinner, punishment has a more restrictive and technical definition. Along with reinforcement it belongs under the operant conditioning category, operant conditioning refers to learning with either punishment as a negative rienforcer or a reward that serves as a positive reinforcement of the lesson to be learned. In psychology, punishment is the reduction of a behavior via application of an unpleasant stimulus or removal of a pleasant stimulus, extra chores or spanking are examples of positive punishment, while removing an offending students recess or play privileges are examples of negative punishment. The definition requires that punishment is only determined after the fact by the reduction in behavior, if the behavior of the subject does not decrease. There is some conflation of punishment and aversives, though an aversion that does not decrease behavior is not considered punishment in psychology, additionally, aversive stimulus is a label behaviorists generally apply to negative reinforcers, rather than punishers. During a period of heavy fishing and tourism that encroached on their territory, they started to live in groups, learning from each other, especially hunting techniques. Small, younger octopuses could be near the fully grown octopuses without being eaten by them, even though they, the authors also note that the octopuses adopted observational learning without any evolutionary history of specialized adaptation for it. There are also arguments against the notion of punishment requiring intelligence, there is proof of honey bee workers with mutations that makes them fertile laying eggs only when other honey bees are not observing them, and that the few that are caught in the act are killed. The authors argue that this falsifies the claim that punishment evolved as a strategy to deal with individuals capable of knowing what they are doing, certain scientists argue that this disproves the notion of humans having a biological feeling of intentional transgressions deserving to be punished

5.
Emotion
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Emotion, generally speaking, is any relatively brief conscious experience characterized by intense mental activity and a high degree of pleasure or displeasure. Scientific discourse has drifted to other meanings and there is no consensus on a definition, Emotion is often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation. In some theories, cognition is an important aspect of emotion and those acting primarily on the emotions they are feeling may seem as if they are not thinking, but mental processes are still essential, particularly in the interpretation of events. For example, the realization of our believing that we are in a dangerous situation, other theories, however, claim that emotion is separate from and can precede cognition. According to some theories, they are states of feeling that result in physical and psychological changes that influence our behavior, the physiology of emotion is closely linked to arousal of the nervous system with various states and strengths of arousal relating, apparently, to particular emotions. Emotion is also linked to behavioral tendency, extroverted people are more likely to be social and express their emotions, while introverted people are more likely to be more socially withdrawn and conceal their emotions. Emotion is often the force behind motivation, positive or negative. Nor is the emotion an entity that causes these components, Emotions involve different components, such as subjective experience, cognitive processes, expressive behavior, psychophysiological changes, and instrumental behavior. More recently, emotion is said to consist of all the components, the different components of emotion are categorized somewhat differently depending on the academic discipline. In psychology and philosophy, emotion typically includes a subjective, conscious experience characterized primarily by psychophysiological expressions, biological reactions, a similar multicomponential description of emotion is found in sociology. For example, Peggy Thoits described emotions as involving physiological components, cultural or emotional labels, expressive body actions, the numerous theories that attempt to explain the origin, neurobiology, experience, and function of emotions have only fostered more intense research on this topic. Current areas of research in the concept of emotion include the development of materials that stimulate, in addition PET scans and fMRI scans help study the affective processes in the brain. Emotions can be defined as a positive or negative experience that is associated with a pattern of physiological activity. Emotions produce different physiological, behavioral and cognitive changes, the original role of emotions was to motivate adaptive behaviors that in the past would have contributed to the survival of humans. Emotions are responses to significant internal and external events, the word emotion dates back to 1579, when it was adapted from the French word émouvoir, which means to stir up. The term emotion was introduced into academic discussion to replace passion, according to one dictionary, the earliest precursors of the word likely dates back to the very origins of language. The modern word emotion is heterogeneous In some uses of the word, on the other hand, emotion can be used to refer to states that are mild and to states that are not directed at anything. One line of research looks at the meaning of the word emotion in everyday language

6.
Big Five personality traits
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The Big Five personality traits, also known as the five factor model, is a model based on common language descriptors of personality. When factor analysis is applied to personality survey data, some used to describe aspects of personality are often applied to the same person. For example, someone described as conscientious is more likely to be described as always prepared than messy and this widely examined theory suggests five broad dimensions used by some psychologists to describe the human personality and psyche. The five factors have been defined as openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, beneath each proposed global factor, a number of correlated and more specific primary factors are claimed. For example, extraversion is said to include such related qualities as gregariousness, assertiveness, excitement seeking, warmth, activity and that these factors can be found is consistent with the lexical hypothesis. Firstly that those personality characteristics that are most important in peoples lives will become a part of their language. Secondly that more important personality characteristics are likely to be encoded into language as a single word. Appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, curiosity, Openness reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety a person has. It is also described as the extent to which a person is imaginative or independent, high openness can be perceived as unpredictability or lack of focus. Moreover, individuals with high openness are said to pursue self-actualization specifically by seeking out intense, euphoric experiences, such as skydiving, living abroad, gambling, et cetera. Conversely, those with low openness seek to gain fulfillment through perseverance, some disagreement remains about how to interpret and contextualize the openness factor. A tendency to be organized and dependable, show self-discipline, act dutifully, aim for achievement, high conscientiousness is often perceived as stubbornness and obsession. Low conscientiousness is associated with flexibility and spontaneity, but can appear as sloppiness. Energy, positive emotions, surgency, assertiveness, sociability and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others, high extraversion is often perceived as attention-seeking, and domineering. Low extraversion causes a reserved, reflective personality, which can be perceived as aloof or self-absorbed, a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. It is also a measure of ones trusting and helpful nature, high agreeableness is often seen as naive or submissive. Low agreeableness personalities are often competitive or challenging people, which can be seen as argumentative or untrustworthy, the tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, and vulnerability. Neuroticism also refers to the degree of stability and impulse control and is sometimes referred to by its low pole

7.
Occam's razor
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Occams razor is a problem-solving principle attributed to William of Ockham, who was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher and theologian. The principle can be interpreted as stating Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected, in science, Occams razor is used as a heuristic technique to guide scientists in the development of theoretical models, rather than as an arbiter between published models. The term Occams razor did not appear until a few centuries after William of Ockhams death in 1347, libert Froidmont, in his On Christian Philosophy of the Soul, takes credit for the phrase, speaking of novacula occami. Ockham did not invent this principle, but the association with him may be due to the frequency. The origins of what has come to be known as Occams razor are traceable to the works of philosophers such as John Duns Scotus, Robert Grosseteste, Maimonides. Aristotle writes in his Posterior Analytics, We may assume the superiority ceteris paribus of the demonstration which derives from fewer postulates or hypotheses, ptolemy stated, We consider it a good principle to explain the phenomena by the simplest hypothesis possible. Phrases such as It is vain to do more what can be done with fewer. Robert Grosseteste, in Commentary on the Posterior Analytics Books, declares, That is better, similarly in natural science, in moral science, and in metaphysics the best is that which needs no premises and the better that which needs the fewer, other circumstances being equal. The Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas states that it is superfluous to suppose that what can be accounted for by a few principles has been produced by many. Aquinas uses this principle to construct an objection to Gods existence, an objection that he in turn answers and refutes generally, hence, Aquinas acknowledges the principle that today is known as Occams razor, but prefers causal explanations to other simple explanations. The Indian Hindu philosopher Madhva in verse 400 of his Vishnu-Tattva-Nirnaya says, William of Ockham was an English Franciscan friar and theologian, an influential medieval philosopher and a nominalist. His popular fame as a great logician rests chiefly on the maxim attributed to him, the term razor refers to distinguishing between two hypotheses either by shaving away unnecessary assumptions or cutting apart two similar conclusions. This principle is sometimes phrased as pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate, in his Summa Totius Logicae, i. 12, Ockham cites the principle of economy, Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora, to quote Isaac Newton, We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances. Therefore, to the natural effects we must, as far as possible. Bertrand Russell offers a version of Occams razor, Whenever possible. The only assumption is that the environment follows some unknown but computable probability distribution and this theory is a mathematical formalization of Occams razor. Another technical approach to Occams razor is ontological parsimony, the widespread laymans formulation that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one appears to have been derived from Occams razor

8.
Emotional labor
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Emotional labor is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job. More specifically, workers are expected to regulate their emotions during interactions with customers, co-workers and superiors. This includes analysis and decision making in terms of the expression of emotion, whether actually felt or not, as well as its opposite, the suppression of emotions that are felt but not expressed. The related term emotion work refers to these same acts done in a context, such as within the private sphere of ones home or interactions with family. Hochschild identified three emotion regulation strategies, cognitive, bodily, and expressive, within cognitive emotion work, one attempts to change images, ideas, or thoughts in hopes of changing the feelings associated with them. For example, one may associate a family picture with feeling happy, within bodily emotion work, one attempts to change physical symptoms in order to create a desired emotion. For example, one may attempt deep breathing in order to reduce anger, within expressive emotion work, one attempts to change expressive gestures to change inner feelings. For example, one may attempt to smile when trying to feel happy, one becomes aware of emotion work most often when ones feelings do not fit the situation. For instance, when one does not feel sad at a funeral, while emotion work happens within the private sphere, emotional labor is emotion management within the workplace according to employer expectations. According to Hochschild, the management by employers creates a situation in which this emotion management can be exchanged in the marketplace. According to Hochschild, jobs involving emotional labor are defined as those that, require the worker to produce an emotional state in another person. Allow the employer, through training and supervision, to exercise a degree of control over the activities of employees. Hochschild argues that within this process, service workers are estranged from their own feelings in the workplace. Moreover, supervisors impressions of the need to suppress negative emotions on the job influence the employees impressions of that display rule, cognitive skills and emotion work skills are separate but related dimensions for successful job performance. The former includes the application of knowledge to the intellectual analysis for problems. More specifically, emotional labor comes into play during communication between worker and citizens, and it requires the rapid-fire execution of, emotive sensing, analyzing, judging, and behaving. Emotive Sensing, Detecting the affective state of the other and using information to array ones own alternative in terms of how to respond. Analyzing, Ones own affective state and comparing it to that of the other, judging, Alternative responses will affect the other, then selecting the best alternative

9.
Motivation
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Motivation is a theoretical construct used to explain behaviour. It gives the reason for actions, desires, and needs. Motivation can also be defined as ones direction to behavior, or what causes a person to want to repeat a behavior, a motive is what prompts the person to act in a certain way, or at least develop an inclination for specific behavior. According to Maehr and Meyer, Motivation is a word that is part of the culture as few other psychological concepts are. Motivation theories can be classified on a number of bases, Natural vs. Rational, content vs. Process, based on whether the focus is on the content motivates vs process motivation takes place. This type of motivation has neurobiological roots in the basal ganglia, activated seeking behavior, such as locomotor activity is influenced by dopaminergic drugs, and in micro dialysis reveals dopamine release during anticipation of a reward. The wanting behavior associated with a stimulus can be increased by microinjections of dopamine and dopaminergic drugs in the dorsorostral nucleus accumbens. Opioid injections in this area produce pleasure, however outside of these hedonic hotspots they create an increased desire, furthermore, depletion or inhibition of DA in neurons of the nucleus accumbens decreases appetitive but not consummatory behavior. Dopamine is further implicated in motivation as administration of amphetamine increased the break point in a progressive ratio self-reinforcement schedule and that is, subjects were willing to go to greater lengths to obtain a reward. Motivation can be conceived of as a cycle in which thoughts influence behaviors, behaviors drive performance, performance affects thoughts, and the cycle begins again. Each stage of the cycle is composed of many dimensions including attitudes, beliefs, intentions, effort, the idea that human beings are rational and human behavior is guided by reason is an old one. However, recent research has significantly undermined the idea of homo economicus or of perfect rationality in favour of a more bounded rationality, the field of behavioural economics is particularly concerned with the limits of rationality in economic agents. Motivation can be divided into two different theories known as intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, Intrinsic motivation has been studied since the early 1970s. Intrinsic motivation is the self-desire to seek out new things and new challenges, to analyze ones capacity, to observe and it is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on external pressures or a desire for consideration. The phenomenon of intrinsic motivation was first acknowledged within experimental studies of animal behavior, in these studies, it was evident that the organisms would engage in playful and curiosity driven behaviors in the absence of reward. Intrinsic motivation is a natural motivational tendency and is an element in cognitive, social. Students who are motivated are more likely to engage in the task willingly as well as work to improve their skills. The employee has the motivation to gain more knowledge

10.
Psychologist
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A psychologist is a professional who evaluates and studies behavior and mental processes. In order to become a psychologist, a person must complete either a degree or a doctorate degree. This definition of a psychologist is non-exclusive, in most jurisdictions, members of other professions can also evaluate, diagnose, treat, there are many types of psychologists, as is reflected by the 56 divisions of the American Psychological Association. Psychologists are generally described as applied or research-orientated, the training models endorsed by the APA require that applied psychologists be trained as both researchers and practitioners, and that they possess advanced degrees. People often think of the discipline as involving clinical or counseling psychology, while counseling and psychotherapy are common activities for psychologists, these applied fields are just one branch in the larger domain of psychology. Under the national law, registration of psychologists is administered by the Psychology Board of Australia, before July 2010, professional registration of psychologists was governed by various State and Territory Psychology Registration Board. The Australian Psychology Accreditation Council oversees education standards for the profession of psychology, endorsement within a specific area of practice requires additional qualifications. These notations are not specialist titles, membership with Australian Psychological Society differs from registration as a psychologist. The standard route to membership of the APS technically requires a masters or doctorate in psychology from an accredited course. An alternate route is available for academics and practitioners who have gained appropriate experience, Association membership requires four years of APAC-accredited undergraduate study. Restrictions apply to all individuals using the title psychologist in all states and territories of Australia, however, the terms psychotherapist, social worker, and counselor are currently self-regulated with several organizations campaigning for government regulation. Since 1933, the title psychologist has been protected by law in Belgium and it can only be used by people who are on the National Government Commission list. The minimum requirement is the completion of five years of university training in psychology, the title of psychotherapist is not legally protected. In Finland, the title psychologist is protected by law, the restriction for psychologists is governed by National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health. It takes 330 ECTS-credits to accomplish the university studies, there are about 6200 licenced psychologists in Finland. Originally, a degree in psychology awarded in Germany included the subject of clinical psychology. With the Bologna-reform, this degree was replaced by a masters degree, the academic degree of Diplom-Psychologe or M. Sc. does not include a psychotherapeutic qualification, which requires three to five years of additional training. The psychotherapeutic training combines in-depth theoretical knowledge with supervised patient care, after having completed the training requirements, psychologists take a state-run exam, which, upon successful completion, confers the official title of psychological psychotherapist

11.
Mental health
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Mental health is a level of psychological well-being, or an absence of mental illness. It is the state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how mental health is defined, a widely accepted definition of health by mental health specialists is psychoanalyst Sigmund Freuds definition, the capacity to work and to love. In the mid-19th century, William Sweetser was the first to coin the term mental hygiene, dorothea Dix was an important figure in the development of mental hygiene movement. Dix was a teacher who endeavored throughout her life to help people with mental disorders. This was known as the mental hygiene movement, emil Kraepelin in 1896 developed the taxonomy mental disorders which has dominated the field for nearly 80 years. Later the proposed model of abnormality was subjected to analysis. Mental illnesses are more common than cancer, diabetes, or heart disease, over 26 percent of all Americans over the age of 18 meet the criteria for having a mental illness. Serious mental disorders affect an estimated 6 percent of the adult population, a little more than half receive treatment. A WHO report estimates the global cost of illness at nearly $2.5 trillion in 2010. An individuals emotional health can also impact physical health and poor mental health can lead to such as substance abuse. Maintaining good mental health is crucial to living a long and healthy life, good mental health can enhance ones life, while poor mental health can prevent someone from living an enriching life. According to Richards, Campania, & Muse-Burke, There is growing evidence that is showing emotional abilities are associated with prosocial behaviors such as stress management and physical health. Their research also concluded that people who lack emotional expression are inclined to anti-social behaviors, Mental health can be seen as an unstable continuum, where an individuals mental health may have many different possible values. Mental wellness is generally viewed as an attribute, even if the person does not have any diagnosed mental health condition. This definition of mental health highlights emotional well-being, the capacity to live a full and creative life, some discussions are formulated in terms of contentment or happiness. Many therapeutic systems and self-help books offer methods and philosophies espousing strategies and techniques vaunted as effective for improving the mental wellness. Positive psychology is increasingly prominent in mental health, an example of a wellness model includes one developed by Myers, Sweeney and Witmer

12.
Agreeableness
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Agreeableness is a personality trait manifesting itself in individual behavioral characteristics that are perceived as kind, sympathetic, cooperative, warm and considerate. In contemporary personality psychology, agreeableness is one of the five dimensions of personality structure, reflecting individual differences in cooperation. People who score high on this dimension are empathetic and altruistic, while a low agreeableness score relates to selfish behavior and those who score very low on agreeableness show signs of dark triad behavior such as manipulation and competing with others rather than cooperating. Agreeableness is considered to be a trait, meaning that it is a grouping of personality sub-traits that cluster together statistically. The lower-level traits, or facets, grouped under agreeableness are, trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness. Like all Big Five personality traits, the roots of the concept of agreeableness can be traced to a 1936 study by Gordon Allport. Seven years later, Raymond Cattell published an analysis of the thousands of personality-related words identified by Allport and Odbert. The clusters identified in this study served as a foundation for Cattells further attempts to identify fundamental, universal and he eventually settled on 16 personality factors through the use of factor analysis. Further factor analyses revealed five higher-order, or global, factors to encompass these 16, extent of agreeableness in the five factor model of personality is most commonly assessed through self-report measures, although peer-reports and third-party observation can also be used. Self-report measures are either lexical or based on statements, which measure of either type is used is determined by an assessment of psychometric properties and the time and space constraints of the research being undertaken. Lexical measures use individual adjectives that reflect agreeableness or disagreeableness traits, such as sympathetic, cooperative, warm, considerate, harsh, unkind, words representing disagreeableness are reverse coded. Goldberg developed a 20-word measure as part of his 100-word Big Five markers, internal consistency reliability of the Agreeableness measure for native English-speakers is reported as.86, that for non-native English-speakers is.80. Statement measures tend to comprise more words, and hence consume more research instrument space, respondents are asked the extent to which they, for example, Am on good terms with nearly everyone, Am not interested in other peoples problems or Sympathize with others feelings. Cattells factor analytic approach, used to identify the universal personality structures, using Cattells original clusters, the 16 Personality Factors, and original data, multiple researchers independently developed a five factor model of personality over this period. From the early 1960s on, these typically included a factor called agreeableness or sociability. Beginning in the 1970s, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae began researching the development of personality based on factor models. Beginning with cluster analyses of Cattells 16 Personality Factors, Costa and these three factors were neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience, resulting in the acronym NEO. This work culminated in the 1985 publication of the first NEO PI Manual to be based on the full Five Factor Model, in the NEO PI, each of the five factors identified by Costa and McCrae are identified with six lower-level traits

A hearing of the International Court of Justice in 2006 presided over by its President, Her Excellency Dame Rosalyn Higgins. A fundamental aspect of natural justice is that before a decision is made, all parties should be heard on the matter.

Possible explanations can become needlessly complex. It is coherent, for instance, to add the involvement of leprechauns to any explanation, but Occam's razor would prevent such additions unless they were necessary.

An illustration of Spearman's two-factor intelligence theory. Each small oval is a hypothetical mental test. The blue areas correspond to test-specific variance (s), while the purple areas represent the variance attributed to g.